The Korean War

The Korean War

The Korean war began as a civil war which was fought from 1950-1953 on the Korean Peninsula that was divided by the post-World War II Soviet and American occupation zones. The civil war began on the 25th of June, 1950 when the communist Democratic people's republic of Korea attacked the capitalist republic of Korea. North Korean soldiers invaded South Korea as they wanted all of Korea to be communist and led by one leader. South Korea was not prepared and the North quickly took over. The republic of Korea received assistance from the United Nations which resulted in soldiers from 15 nations being sent to fight in the Korean War.

17000 Australian troops served in the Korean war between 1950-1953. The conditions in Korea were not good, the troops served in long periods of extreme heat, extreme cold, rain and snow. Living conditions for Australian troops were tough as over 80 percent of Korea is covered in mountains, making even moving short distances exhausting and time consuming for the troops. The winters in Korea were freezing and the troops were forced to sleep with their guns to their chests so that parts of the guns wouldn't freeze. Living and fighting in this climate was very difficult and it was very hard to transport and move supplies to the troops and provide them with the health care they needed. Australian soldiers were eventually given proper protective clothing by the Americans and the British.

"Not many of us had long-johns or sweaters, but whatever we had, we wore the lot. The trick was to get amongst the rice stooks and bury yourself in straw that kept the frost off, but [it